The kids joined us for a pancake brunch this afternoon. Jeanine whipped up the buttermilk batter and I was in charge of cooking and flipping, jobs I take rather seriously. Controlling the griddle temperature on a gas stove was a losing proposition and I am looking forward to the induction cooktop we will have in our new house. Despite the challenges of keeping the pan at 375F, I managed to produce some rather fine-looking pancakes. Maya heads to the UK next week with a large group of her high school friends and it was fun to hear about all that she has planned. Nicolai had just come from his girlfriend’s birthday party where he met her parents for the first time.
Kyle and I installed the shower in his new basement bathroom. We were both very pleased with the results. The unit is a perfect fit for the space and the sliding door works like a charm. All that remains to be done is the installation of the shower head. The job took longer than we expected because we had to stop in the middle to locate and buy a diamond-tipped drill bit to make 8 holes through the porcelain tile which was entirely impenetrable with the carbide-tipped bit we started with. While we worked on the bathroom, Jeanine did a thorough job of de-stapling and cleaning the stairs after we removed the worn-out carpeting.
I managed to complete the installation of our Zehnder ERV in the River House today. In total, the system has six 8″ trunks; two for the outside intake and exhaust (which must be insulated and appear at the back of the unit, two for the west wing supply and extract (going through the wall), and two for the east wing supply and extract (up into the joist bays). Insulating the outside intake and exhaust ducts took 4 times as long as all the remaining work and was my least favorite part of the job. The whole thing looks a little like an octopus but I am pleased that I kept the ductwork confined to the footprint of the ERV so as not to encroach on the rest of the mechanical room.
I fitted the turning vanes that Maya 3D printed for me into the “T” section of ducting where it will permanently reside. The fit was perfect and I would be willing to bet that this is the first use of a 3D-printed component in a domestic HVAC system.
Today’s crew included our site supervisor, Arel Electric, and M&R Plumbing. Pictured here on their lunch break, the team has been doing outstanding work. The old carport and garage continue to serve as a makeshift office and storage area, respectively. Both will be demolished when we reach the end of the project.
A friend who was kayaking on the Sudbury River shared the photos he took while on the water. It is a perspective of the new house we have not seen thus far and it was really fun to see them.
Nico will be playing amputee soccer in two upcoming local events. He has been instrumental in helping to grow the sport which now has an emerging group of regional teams that compete with each other.
Jeanine took this photo of Kyle and me after we completed the installation of his new refrigerator, dishwasher, induction range, and microwave oven. It took us all day to complete the electrical and plumbing. We took a break at noon to enjoy a family brunch courtesy of Jeanine. We were joined by Maya as well. Nicolai is in New Jersey at an amputee soccer training session and was missing from the family meal. Next up, Kyle and I will focus on completing the bathroom and interior door installation. The countertop fabrication will be subbed out as will the painting of the entire basement. Today definitely felt like a major milestone in a project that has taken over a year to complete.
I have opted to seal the 8″ duct work for our ventilation system from the inside. Normally, sealant is applied on the outside seams but I think it results in a rather unattractive installation. I also chose to use rivets rather than sheet metal screws to secure sections of ducting. Screws, in my experience, can loosen up over time, something I have never seen with a properly set rivet. These details take extra time and no one will ever notice them. Creating innovative works of enduring value is one component of my personal mission statement. I think it is fair to say that my approach to ductwork falls under that banner.
In order to optimize the routing of ductwork for the ventilation system in the River House, I found it advantageous to use a “T” junction to split airflow between two different circuits. A “Y” junction would have been optimal for this application but would result in far more complex duct routing at the expense of overall system performance. My solution was to design a set of internal turning vanes that will direct half of the air into each of the 8″ round ” T ” stubs. I sent Maya the CAD file and she printed the part for me on a Formlabs Form3L. The print took 24 hours and turned out beautifully (pun intended).
Plumbing work on the new house has moved to the supply lines with all of the drain and vent work now completed. I could not be happier with the workmanship. The main and guest bedrooms will have digitally controlled valves. These are the two black boxes on the right. A console in each shower area will control the valves allowing for selection between a rain head and a shower head, precise temperature control, user presets, and integration with our home automation system. “Hey Siri, start Carl’s shower.” My preset temperature and shower head combination will be selected and when the water reaches the set temperature the shower will pause until I enter. This feature is a little bit decadent but there are few things that I covet more than the relaxation derived from my morning shower. It is where I do my best thinking and relieve the aches and pains that seem to be the new normal as my age advances.
The manifold on the left includes hot (red) and cold (blue) supply line shutoffs for different sections of the house. The valve on the far left is for the outside water bibs and includes a purge valve for winterization.
The threat of snowfall from a powerful Nor’easter kept all but the plumbers from showing up at the River House today and they only worked until mid-morning. This gave me free run of the house to complete the ventilation distribution system for which I am the installer. What I enjoyed most was the peace and quiet. The subs invariably have their job site radio’s tuned to stations I do not particularly care for. The snow kept mixing with rain throughout the day which limited total accumulation to about 3 inches. Had it been one to two degrees colder, we could have easily seen three times that amount.
When designing the layout for the River House, I provisioned for a vertical chase behind the stairwell to accommodate the various mechanical systems of the house. It goes from the basement all the way to the roof line. At the time, I thought I had provided a generous amount of space. Now I am thankful that everything is just fitting (barely). The chase is occupied by the following items:
8″ round intake duct (ventilation system)
8″ round exhaust duct (ventilation system)
4″ radon vent
12″ x 8″ second floor heating/cooling supply duct
12″ x 8″ second floor return duct
10″ x 8″ first floor heating/cooling supply duct
Eight 3″ round fresh air supply ducts
Eight 3″ round stale air exhaust ducts
Key to fully utilizing the space has been the interactive staging of work. Today, I installed eight fresh air ducts (white tubes). Next, the HVAC contractor will complete the horizontal section of the supply duct. Then, I will run additional round ducts in the 2×4 bay on the near side. Any other order of work would preclude this degree of packing density.
Jeanine prepared this Swedish almond torte for a dinner party we held this evening. Our guests included two couples with whom we have a great deal in common but have not thus far spent much time together. The company was wonderful and the food delicious. It made for a very relaxing evening after a second day of back-breaking work running ventilation tubes at the River House.
Kyle spent the entire day helping me install the ventilation tubes that will supply fresh air to the River House. In total, the project requires some 1500 feet of tubing. Kyle’s preferred method for carrying the 150-foot spools struck me as very amusing. By the end of the day, we completed 14 of the 32 runs from various parts of the house to the mechanical room where they will be connected to a Zehnder Comfoair Q600. Pulling these corrugated tubes through the joists and cutouts between floors is some of the most physically tiring work you can imagine. Every muscle in my body is sore from the effort and I imagine Kyle will be moving a little slowly tomorrow as well.
Jeanine is in the final throes of publishing her memoir cookbook. A project 15 years in the making. Someone with early access to the manuscript questioned the amount of salt in the family recipe for Taralli. Determined to catch any errors before going to print, Jeanine prepared a batch to verify the accuracy. I was fortunate to be pulled into the quality control work and can categorically testify that these were the best I have ever had.
I found these pictures on Nico’s Instagram account. He recently started training with CrossFit (“constantly varied functional movement at high intensity”) and competed in his first CrossFit Games, placing 69th worldwide in the Open Division. I am fairly certain he is lifting more weight than I ever could. My dad was an accomplished weightlifter as a young man and would have been so happy to see his grandson performing at this level.
My nephew, Rory, just arrived in Tuscany, Italy where he will be working on an organic farm for the next 3 months. It specializes in producing Parmesan cheese from its cows.
WWOOF is a worldwide effort to link visitors with organic farmers, promote an educational exchange, and build a global community conscious of ecological farming practices. Visitors, or ‘WWOOFers’, share in daily life with their host and learn about organic agriculture while spending about half of each day helping out on a farm.
HVAC work began on the River House today. Many of the needed ducts were assembled and insulated in preparation for placement in the joist bays. Supply register openings were cut through the subfloor in locations that were a necessary compromise between the ideal placement and clearance from floor joists and obstructions below. Based on the pace of work and the size of the team, I suspect the work will be finished rather quickly. I am now on deck for the installation of the ventilation system which I hope to tackle over the weekend if not sooner.
We will be using closed-cell foam for the insulation on the River House. Originally we planned on using 2″ of closed-cell foam with 5.5″ of mineral wool batts. Next, we opted for blown-in cellulose in lieu of mineral wool. Then we switched to open-cell foam over the closed-cell base. Finally, we have decided to use 100% closed-cell foam applied to a thickness of 5 to 5.5 inches yielding an R-value of 40 for the exterior walls. Today, the insulation crew treated areas of the exterior walls that will be difficult to access once all the mechanical systems are installed. This included the vertical chase behind the stairwell and the rim board joists between the basement and first floor. In addition to having the highest R-value/inch of any product on the market, closed cell foam adds a ridiculous amount of strength to the wall structure. It was necessary to heat the interior of the house with propane heaters to ensure proper curing of the foam which went in beautifully and I am very pleased with the results. The green circles are from the openings I cut in the sheathing for the ERV vents. They are taped to the pipes I installed to keep heat in and birds out until the vent caps are installed.
On Monday, we will have selected portions of the River House sprayed with closed-cell foam, the insulation product we will be using throughout. The areas that will be addressed are ones that will become impossible to reach later as more and more of the mechanical infrastructure is put in place (ducts, pipes, vents). Two such vents which I added to the house today are for the ERV (Energy Recovery Ventilator) which is a critical component of a tightly sealed house. It is responsible for continuously bringing fresh air in to replace an equal amount of stale air. The intake and exhaust vents each require a 10-inch pipe placed through the siding of the house. The pipes need to be installed with an exact amount of protrusion from the siding to facilitate the later installation of a vent cap. This is the sort of task that is very difficult to do precisely when working alone but led me to a very clever idea for simplifying the task. I measured and marked the distance from the back face of the sheathing to the end of the tube. I then installed four pop-rivets and left their tails in tact. This gave me four bearing points to register the depth of the tube in the siding while I anchored it in place with screws.
Jeanine flew to Minnesota today so that she could attend the opening night performance of our niece, Rose, in her school’s production of the Lion King. As do all of my brother’s children, she has a beautiful singing voice and played the role of Simba. My brother also had a hand in the production and is said to have constructed the “gorge” scene but I have yet to see any photographic evidence to support this claim.
Jeanine has joined the Board of Directors of Minuteman Arc. The non-profit seeks to improve the lives of children and adults with disabilities by increasing lifelong independence, personal choice, and self-advocacy.
She was recruited for the role when she announced her departure from OpenTable but wanted to give herself some time to decompress before accepting the position.
Minute Man Arc offers a variety of programs and services in three main areas: Early Intervention, Pediatric Services, and Adult Services. Their programs focus on integrating service delivery into local communities, organizations, and employment sources. The agency is committed to “valued inclusion in the community” and makes this happen by creating and nurturing a diverse array of partnerships with community groups, neighbors, state agencies, and other funding sources.
I have been ordering many of the long lead items that will be needed to complete the River House construction. Items are arriving almost daily at the Road House where I have learned to unpack and inspect each one even if the packaging looks fine. Today, one of the medicine cabinets that will go into the main bedroom arrived via FedEx. The outer box showed no signs of trauma. The interior packing was very robust and also intact. Despite this, when I removed the cabinet, I discovered one corner of the frame and mirror were damaged. I am glad I caught this now rather than in mid-summer when this cabinet would have been installed. Still, I am not looking forward to the replacement process which generally involves a lot of finger-pointing and paperwork.
Of all the choices we have had to make for the River House, none have been more difficult and time-consuming than those related to the siding; materials, colors, and patterns. We received the rendering above from our architect today which illustrates the patterns we will use. The horizontal boards will be used between vertically aligned windows and extend from the foundation to the roof line in between black trim boards. The vertical boards will cover the remainder of the house and be of variable width in either a shiplap or open joint profile. As much as we both love wood, we ruled this out as a material early on because of the ongoing need for maintenance. Leading candidates for the vertical boards are Boral Tru Exterior (principally made from fly ash) and Modern Mill Acre (principally made from rice hulls). The horizontal boards will be either Resysta (rice hull) or metal. We have developed a provisional color pallet, not the one shown here, but that is still in a bit of flux. We need to nail down all of the final choices this week if we are to stay on schedule.
Jeanine and I drove into Somerville this evening to have dinner with Maya at the Bow Market, a short walk from her apartment. She appears to have fully recovered from her bout of mononucleosis that left her totally incapacitated for the last week. Kyle is visiting with friends in Padre Island, TX and Nicolai is in San Diego for an amputee soccer event so our family dinner was much smaller than usual. Earlier in the day, Jeanine and I met with our interior designer to review the tile design for the bathrooms, and are getting close to a final version. I subsequently spent several hours at the River House relocating 16 electrical boxes for the bathroom sconces and outlets so that these fixtures would be optimally aligned with the new tile plan.
Just found this video clip of Nico on the Instagram account of AdaptX Sports. The organization is committed to teaching fitness professionals how to address the unique needs of clients with intellectual and physical disabilities. It looks like they put Nico through quite an extensive fitness evaluation. I would be interested to see how his numbers compared to other professional athletes.
Joseph Smedley was a childhood friend of Nicolai’s when we lived in Indianapolis. He died in 2015 in what police ruled a suicide. His sister Vivianne has been on a crusade to have the case reopened convinced that foul play was involved. From what I know of the facts of the case, I am of the opinion that Joseph died at the hands of one or more members of the Sigma Pi fraternity. The note he left behind in his room, is all you need to study to reach this conclusion. It read: “Had to leave country. don’t try to contact me via cell it won’t works. will contact you once setup overseas. ~Smedley 9/28.” First, this is not a suicide note. It is a note written by someone who wanted to create a narrative where Joseph is nowhere to be found (his body was found in a local reservoir with a book and stone filled backpack strapped to his chest). Second, his sister does not believe it is in his handwriting and it appears to have been written by a left-handed person. Joseph was right-handed. Third, it was dated. Who dates a note like this. It was dated to establish a time line, probably to create an alibi for the perpetrator(s). Fourth, it was poorly written and sloppily scrawled. Joseph was very bright and had excellent penmanship. Fifth, Joseph did not have a passport nor the financial means to leave the country. All of this leads to one obvious conclusion. The note was written by the person(s) who were involved with his death. It was left in the apartment which he shared with fellow members of the Sigma Pi fraternity. He was last seen with members of Sigma Pi on the night of his disappearance. A text with a similar message was sent to his sister on the following morning. It was sent by someone who knew who Vivianne was to Joseph and had access to his phone (which was not found with the body or at his apartment). The coroner ruled the cause of death as drowning. A subsequent autopsy revealed hemorrhaging on Joseph’s back, suggesting to me that he drowned while being held underwater by one or more people who were kneeling on his back. His body was found in 3 feet of water with a pair of binoculars around his neck in addition to the weighted backpack strapped to his chest. There is no way this was a suicide.
I believe Joseph’s death was not premeditated because the cover-up was so ill-conceived. I think the most likely scenario is that he was killed by one or more members of his fraternity either as part of a hazing that went tragically wrong or as the result of an altercation.
Please join me in signing a petition for the police to reopen this case. Details of the case can be found here.
We were joined today by Tom and Karen Metzold for a tour of the River House followed by lunch at Firorella’s Cucina. Tom was my wrestling partner in high school and is my oldest friend. Karen and I share the same birthday and have much more in common. The couple lives in Westwood and is just back from a skiing vacation in Colorado. They leave shortly for their home in Florida so we were fortunate that we could spend time with them today.
This website is dedicated to sharing, with family and friends, the day-to-day adventures of the Calabria family.
